Cycle's End
by Inferni
Summary: The hero is plagued by nightmares. Another task is thrust into his hands. He must fight not only for himself, but to save another from a premonition. Discontinued for Crapness.
1. Heartache

_It was black._

_Not the color, this was far darker than that. Shadows were everywhere, and nowhere, for they required the presence of light. This was its total absence. Night could not be it either, for the moon's glowing presence was there with the guiding stars as well. No light, no good, nothing. All was a single, black, deep, cold, endless dark._

_Something stirred from within this great hole, a soul in anguish, one all-to-familiar. It's presence brought forth pain within the heart, fresh scars upon the soul being torn open. The being laughed, and a golden light flashed once above it. A shadowy hand reached up to touch the light, and all turned to darkness._

_Time flashed forward. Now beheld was twilight, a beautiful sky of both dusk and dawn. Darkness and light met at this place, neither leaving a true imprint. It was truly only a shadow, but beautiful nonetheless. But today was different. The soft orange light bled crimson down upon a palace of obsidian. The Palace of Twilight it was; wrecked, ruined, and destroyed. Inside, the clashing of souls locked in combat could be heard. A figure in green ran inward at the base of the citadel, driven by fear and worry, praying to the goddesses he was not to late._

_Past monsters and traps, a great door, and into a throne room lit by turquoise light. There, the green-clad hero stopped. A great beast stood in the throne room, a glowing white scar slashed down his chest. A great mane of vivid orange hair fell around a face of black fur, two bloodstained tusks glinting in the soft, teal light. The hero wobbled, then fell to his knees. On one of the horns, a limp form impaled. Beautiful fiery hair hung limp and stained with the blood of its owner. The adventurer's shining sword clanged heavily to the ground, the blade's light extinguishing without a sound. A cloak of royalty hung about her form, her golden eyes were forever shut. _

_Midna._

_The beast roared in triumph. The man screamed in heart-wrenching agony._

Link screamed in unison as he sat up right in his bed, nearly going over the small boat's edge as it rocked with his sleep's former trashing. His sheets were drenched in a cold sweat, along with his white villager's tunic. No dead corpse or fiend greeted him though, just the soft, cool wind blowing across lake Hylia. The stars and moonlight illuminated the lake and its many inhabitants: dozens of multicolored fish and the occasional zora fishing at the bottom.

The Hero of Twilight, now nearing adulthood, who had saved not just one world, but two, stared at the his limp fishing line hanging loosely off the boat's end as he recalled the nightmare in his head. It had been two months since he had parted with Zelda and Midna, and in that time he had done nothing heroic. More just the opposite in fact. Link had only returned to Ordon Village to restock his supplies, talking to no one while home and leaving just as quietly as he arrived to wander from place to place. He'd even stolen food from time to time. Borrowing a boat from Iza, the adventurer had navigated the rapids, coming down to let his boat drift on the Lake's surface, just in the hopes of having one night's peaceful rest under the stars. But every night, a new nightmare would greet him. He had a heartache that he couldn't cure by himself, nor could the beauty of nature around him. The hero's eyes closed, and he saw in his mind the cruel memory again.

The desert was cool, no harsh winds blew atop the tallest area of the Arbiter's grounds. The sun was high, but little heat baked upon the three gathered there.

_Link and Zelda stood across from Midna, her black twili cloak blowing gently in the soft winds. Her head was bowed, and a tear came down across her face. Link did not cry though, to him this was not an eternal goodbye. In his mind, he would return to the Twilight Realm just as soon as life here had settled back down. The hero didn't foresee the event that was about to happen, one that would crack his heart in two._

_Midna's tear glowed softly leaving her face as she spoke the words that haunted him. "Link…" Her hand reached up before the tear, holding for a second in the air. "I…" her hand came down gently, pushing the glowing droplet across the small plateau._

"_See you later…"_

Characteristic of her_, he thought. That moment though, was the last of happiness he had. His eye caught the tear as it floated up to the Mirror of Twilight… and drifted right through it. A pool of violet energy formed where the droplet entered, and spread rapidly across the mirror, cracking the sacred glass in countless ways that Zant had only dreamed of accomplishing. Fully realizing what she had done, he turned only to watch her dissolve into a stream of white particles in the Mirror's light, passing through the portal on the obsidian rock._

_With a final crack, the mirror of twilight exploded in a flash of shards._

Link opened his eyes, staring at the lake and his reflection. His blond-brown hair was unkept, and no longer held the fine part it once did. It was limp and greasy, falling where the wind blew it. The green cap that was part of his Hero's tunic was packed away with his things. He put it away to stay under the radar, as many had heard of the green-clad hero who had fought back the monsters of Zant's twilight army. His sapphire eyes stared at him with an ache few could understand.

_What was she going to say?_ The thought, combined with his nightmares and her absence, all swirled around in his head and caught like a lump in his stomach and chest. His heart was heavy as lead, at it felt like a weight and burden as no other. The truth was; as much as she bothered him and bossed him around, as much as she had taunted and teased him, she had stood up for the light as much as her own world. She had defied Ganondorf, despite the formidable chosen power he wielded. And, she had made him feel complete. Despite his self-denial, he knew it in his heart. During their time together;

He had fallen in love.

It wasn't sudden, it wasn't absolute. At the beginning, he hadn't even set out for her. The villager turned hero had been out to save his childhood friend – one he had actually saw himself together with at the time. Link had hated the little imp who rode him around like a horse. She had treated him like a servant, a slave. He several times wanted to buck her off and maul the princess of twilight. But time passed. She told him of truth, and spoke of defiance. She had courage, defying the "king" of twilight. Zant had left her for dead, and he rode through rain and time to save her. He didn't know why, until now. They had fought together in the realm of twilight, and she had sacrificed herself to try and stop Ganon's raging spirit. When the light spirits had brought her back, the hero could only gape at her true form. Link had spent so long chasing Ilia, he'd miss the real beauty in front of him the whole time.

A single tear hit the water. It surprised Link, for not even as a child had he ever cried; or so Rusl had told him. Leaning back in the boat, he waited in the pain of his heartache for oblivion to claim him. Nightmare and reality, they were just two different pains to him now. The hero didn't care which he drifted consciously within, not anymore.


	2. Awakening

A new nightmare greeted Link as sleep sank over him like a heavy blanket, but it was to be quite unlike the rest

_Twilight twinkled behind Link, but only darkness stood ahead. He stood frozen to the spot, trapped by chains of dark magic. Thought the hero struggled, he was unable to bring the Master Sword forward to cut the dark force binding him. Before him, the outline of a man stood before the culmination of darkness; a blade imbedded in stone identical to the Master Sword. The handle was made of crimson twisted bone, and the blade itself literally absorbed the light around it. Embedded in place of the symbol of the triforce was another engraving, but the adventurer could not make it out._

_The figure extended his hands about the sword like a child warming his hands to the fire. In a single fluid motion, the man's gauntlets grasped the hilt and wrenched the blade from its place, holding it aloft. His blood-colored eyes cast down on Link, chilling his blood. His dark, thick, and green skin was colored by the twilight escaping the sword's hunger. The Dark Lord and King of Evil were titles this being held. A name… Ganondorf._

_The demon thief jumped up into the air with his blade of midnight and brought it down upon the hero._

_-----_

It was just settling into dusk as Epona stopped outside Hyrule Castle Town's gate. The sunrays lazily cast themselves over the hillside over in the distance, glinting off the chain mail sticking out from the Green Tunic. Dismounting, Link strode across the bridge and through the town. Many were surprised to see the rumored hero, muttering amongst themselves about it. 

"Is that him?"

"Where's he been?"

"How can a boy as scrawny as that hold a sword?"

Nothing was heard by Link himself though; he was driven with a single fear in mind. Each step was solid and firm, each push forward speaking of determination.

Before the marble gates, The Hero of Twilight didn't even look up at the majestic sight of Hyrule's new castle. The fight between Midna and Ganon had completely obliterated the former structure, and the castle had been rebuilt in a flurry with a new architectural design. Flaws in the old castle had changed, roofings had been updated, and even the graveyard was given new tombstones.

There was no sight to behold about Link though. He felt nothing of nature and drank not of it. The guards gasped and murmured as their hero appeared like a ghost in the castle, traveling about the corridors unhindered. Through the shadowy ends of the keep, and into the dark labyrinth below he plunged. Though most of the castle had been rebuilt identical or slightly improved, one new thing had been made. A dungeon built beneath the castle for a sole occupant to house for all time, or so it was hoped.

At last, there was but a single doorway between what the hero sought and himself; a large stone wall stood before him, an apparent dead end in the dungeon's lowest level. Embedded upon the wall was a large symbol of the triforce, enchanted by Zelda and the light spirits themselves to keep something terrible in and fools out. Link raised his left hand and placed it in the center of the three dully-illuminated triangles. An identical light drew three lines upon the back of his palm, tracing the pattern of the bottom right triangle there. The triforce of courage flashed in unison with the pattern, and the wall began to slide aside. Link stepped within without waiting for it to finish reaching berth.

No torches were lit within the chamber, for who would need them? The only ones with the key needed to come down here were bearers of the chosen powers, and the dead one entombed within here didn't need light anymore. The only luminescence came from a glowing white tear near the center of the room, cut down a shadowy breastplate. Link pulled out his lantern, lighting a half dozen torches until enough light was present to see. Near the back wall, there stood a man. His body hadn't moved from the sudden rigor mortis he had suffered upon his death. He stood tall, his arms reached out to move but never to arrive. The gerudo's eyes were completely white and glazed, devoid of the blood-thirsting angry pupils that sent a chill down the spine of even the most battle hardened. Black, beaten armor covered all but the fire-colored hair tied upon the man's head. The former light that had been the sole lumination of the chamber was revealed as the glowing scar across the inhabitant's chest, a reminder of a sentence long due and only recently completed. The only change that had even occurred at all since this being's death was the missing blade that Link himself had run the demon thief through with. It now rested in the Sacred Grove as it spent the many ages when not in the hands of heroes, seemingly untouched by the blood of the wicked as always.

Link gradually examined the chains tied about Ganondorf's wrists and ankles. It wasn't as if they were necessary, but people could never take too many precautions. He gradually moved his eyes up the demon's body, coming to rest on those dead, blank eyes.

"Link?"

The hero jumped back startled, tripping over himself and smacking his head hard against the tiled ground at the sound of the voice. Had the Dark Lord just spoken?! Looking behind though, his fears were quickly relieved.

Zelda's beauty was enchanting and astounding as always. A man could try to write a poem on it and be on the eighty-second page by the week's end, and still not have used even a fraction of her features. Her dress was white silk laced with pink, and numerous symbols down the front. The princess's hair was fluid and silky gold, and her eyes nearly identical to the hero's. She reached down a gloved hand to help him up. Link took it gingerly, pushing himself up solo so she didn't have to exert nearly any effort. He turned back to face Ganondorf's frozen form. "How did you know I was down here?" he asked.

"Most of the guards were talking about it. It's not something you see everyday, a hero gone missing for months and suddenly appearing as if from nowhere." Zelda's hand came to rest on Link's shoulder, and he neither flinched nor moved from it, just uncaringly let it linger there. "When I heard you come back to the castle without even stopping to return hellos or greetings, I guessed where you were headed. But… why _did_ you come down here?"

The Hero of Twilight sighed, kneeling down to the cold stone ground and sitting upon it. Zelda's hand followed his shoulder like the bug after a lamp of a nomad drifting in the woods. "I've been having dreams… nightmares, actually." Link closed his eyes, the haunting images of conscious sleep drifting before him like a string of dancing poes. "It's always the same. I see Ganon, soaked in the blood of battles, and…" He paused for a moment, contemplating whether he should tell the princess about the other half of his dashed hopes. "…Midna, dead, lying at his feet." He finished with a exhalation of breath. The hero hadn't even noticed he'd been holding it for a moment.

Zelda raised a slender eyebrow behind Link, noting the hesitation in his voice. There was something he wasn't telling her, that much she could decipher. But, the hero had long since earned the right to privacy of thought, so she let it slide for a comment of reassurance. "I'm sure your just having nightmares Link. Ganondorf," Here she raised her hand to indicate the stiff form standing at the other end of the room, "is not returning to wreak havoc upon us anytime soon."

No sooner had the words left her mouth when the entire room exploded with brilliant golden light. The pair held their hands up to their eyes to shield them from the intensity of Ganondorf's shining corpse. Both were astounded when their left hands were pulled into the air by the power of triforce pieces they wielded. An emerald beam shot from Link's hand, and a sapphire's from Zelda's, both striking the deceased man's glowing wound. In a flash, the occurance was over and they were both left on the floor partially stunned by the light. The golden triangles dimmed back to their unused state, softly pulsating and using their energy to awaken the heroes. Link was the first to open his eyes, the sound of deep breathing sending a cold, waking chill down his spine. _Please, no… don't let it be real._ He slowly pulled his head up, looking to the source of the noise.

Ganondorf knelt with both his hand upon the ground, steam coming in great wafts off of his body. His irregular and ragged breathing was hoarse, and he gulped down the air that had been denied to his brain for so long. The Dark Lord wobbled as he got to his feet, one hand holding the rapidly pulsating gash on his chest. His renewed eyes looked warily about, until they finally came to rest on Link, narrowing down to a pair of tiny black holes. "You…" he wheezed. The sentence had barely left his lips when the four chains bound around his limbs all pulsated with energy, yanking the gerudo right out from under his feet as they were rapidly reeled in to the sockets in the walls behind him. A grunt of pain was pushed from his lungs as his rag doll body was slammed into the wall, nearly leaving cracks in the stone.

"How's it possible?"

Zelda was getting to her feet just as Link tried to stand. They both wobbled as The princess walked up to the wall where the man was chained, still taking in great gulps of oxygen. Link drew his Ordon Sword from his back, fully intending to gut Ganondorf a second time. Despite the pain wracking his body, the gerudo still managed to utter a growl and speak. "You claim I'm a monster… and yet this is the game you play with me?" Zelda and Link both stopped, if only to hear his last words a second time. He tried to laugh, but only ended up coughing up blood. "You slay me, take away the power the goddesses themselves bless me with, and chain me up in your darkest prison… for what? Just so you can use a portion of your life energy and own chosen powers to bring me back and gut me a second time? At least I had the dignity to leave the dead be!"

The words hit home to Zelda. She held out a hand beside her to hold back Link, who was advancing with his sword unsheathed. His head swiveled around to meet hers. "You can't be serious?"

Zelda closed her eyes as she spoke. "Whether we intended to or not, we cannot just take back life that we have restored, no matter how diabolical that life was." She opened her eyes to look at Ganondorf, whose own eyes were resting menacingly on her.

Link pointed an accusing finger at the gerudo. "Then what can you possibly hope to do with him? Nothing good can come of his existence!" He flailed his arms as if to prove some unknown point. "Besides, you'd have to move him out of here to do it. He'd suffocate within a day of this tomb!"

The princess of light turned over to look at Link, nodding slightly. He gaped at her. "He'll escape for sure! This place was built for him because we knew no other could hold him!" In the hero's head, he was coming up with any and every excuse to put Ganondorf back down. He felt that if it wasn't done, his dreams were doomed to become prophecy. The very reason he'd come down here was to make sure the Dark Lord was still dead, not to revive him!

Zelda decision was resolute though. "His chosen power has been taken from him, and he's barely alive from the energy fed to him via our powers. He's in no shape to escape." She loosed the rapier that hung from her belt with one hand, pulling the thin blade free from the silk of her gown. The princess snapped her fingers, and the chains binding the Demon thief evaporated into light as he fell to the floor. She tapped the blade gently against his neck twice before he got up weakly. "Don't do anything foolish Ganondorf, or I will not stop Link from jamming his sword into your stomach a second time." He snorted, following Zelda as she left the chamber. Link followed behind, ready to lop the gerudo's head off if he so much as flinched. He stopped at the door for a moment however, turning back to face the chamber.

For a second, the hero thought he had heard the giggle of a child. Nothing faced him from the shadows though, and he was quickly brought back by Zelda's voice calling for him. By the time he had caught up with the pair on the stairs, the thought had already faded from his memory.


	3. Absolution

Link and Zelda argued for nearly a week, neither giving nor gaining ground. While the Princess of Hyrule's position as ruler dictated the final decision, Zelda did not seek to force Link's hand so unfairly as it had been one of two which had restored the life they had renewed together. But, the heroin was just as stubborn as she had been in her childhood, and wouldn't compromise. Link, on the other hand, was rejuvenated in his arguments every night as bloodied images of Midna's ruined form by the King of Evil's hand returned to refuel his will. Only by restraint of mind did he keep from storming down to the town dungeon and pushing his sword deep into Ganondorf's black heart. On the sixth day, the Hero of Twilight was on the verge of going through with his heart's designs when disaster struck.

It started at night. Link was loaned an empty city apartment by Zelda so that he didn't have to travel all the way from Ordon and back each day just to argue more over the demon thief's fate. The adventurer tossed violently in his sleep, Ganondorf's wicked grin dancing before his eyes. A scream pierced the night, waking him from the pain of subconscious delusions as he got up and looked out the window. Bulblins streamed down the streets, waving their sword-sticks threatening about in the air and squealing war cries. Groups of hylian soldiers ran about in the streets in fear, only a dozen brave ones actually fighting off the threat. Fearing what they sought, the hero hastily threw on his tunic and grabbed his things, running out into the streets.

Up close the destruction was even more imposing. Fire and smoke filled the air and night sky, drifting up seemingly into the heavens themselves. Screams came from burning buildings, mothers calling out for their children. Link fired one of his clawshots across the street, holding the chain in place as squad of bulblins came rushing down the street. The front ones tried to stop, only to get trampled over as the momentum sent them onto the chain and clothes-lined the group. With the whistle of a succession of arrows, none of them got back up. The Hero of Twilight dashed down the street toward the prison. Few bulblins got in his way, and the ones that did quickly fell before blade or bow. The barracks was near the castle, up in the northeast corner. The stones themselves seemed to turn in the glowing orange light cast off by the inferno around it. Link rounded the last corner to it, then came to a stop.

Corpses of guards and bulblins littered the stone streets. Ganondorf held his stomach as two of the little demons rushed at him. The gerudo waited until they came within mere feet before he acted. In a blur of motion Link himself could barely see, his right hand shot down to grasp the corrupted sword of the sages and bring in a full 360-degree arc that stopped the green pair in their tracks. Ganondorf spun the sword once before sliding it back into its scabbard, and with a sickening sound the heads of the two fell of their bodies and onto the ground, the headless corpses quickly following. Link's eyes widened. _Was that…?_ Ganondorf turned, surprise splashing over his face for a moment before it settled back into a familiar one of malice. Link didn't wait to waste time with words, instead drawing his own blade and rushing the gerudo. Ganondorf threw himself to the side, grasping at the boar's saddle that the two bulblins had dismounted from and climbed aboard. The Hero of Twilight ran back in another mad rush toward the beast's front, desperate to keep the demon thief from escaping. He was promptly thrown out of the way as Ganondorf nicked the boar's sides, causing it to rush and toss him aside with its horns like a rag doll. The hero was slammed into the barracks wall, and sliding to the ground he heard the gerudo's laughter. "Soon enough boy!" He yelled back as the boar knocked the castle town doors off their hinges and was lost among the night's shadows. As he blacked out, one miserable thought swam through his head and blot out all other senses.

_I failed her._

_-----_

Zelda watched the doctor pack up his tools. "How is he?"

It had been three days since the Bulblin attack. Link had been found beaten and bruised near the barracks, and he'd taken prime residence in the Medical Clinic. It wasn't as if anyone else had the money, and being sponsored by the princess herself was worth a lot of credit, if not business.

The old man finished packing up the tools, even though he needed only carry them across the hall to his office to put them back. He slid the thick-rimmed glasses up his nose with an index finger. "Well, physically the boy has almost entirely recovered on his own. Not that I can drop my fee you understand…" He had to keep from grinning as images of rupees danced before his eyes. Zelda only arched an eyebrow, but that was more than enough to make the doctor sweat. "Er… of course his mental state is not very good. He keeps twisting about in his sleep and mutters incoherent things under his breath frequently."

"Thank you, doctor." Zelda's stare sent the old man scurrying off to his office faster than his elderly appearance seemed capable of. She sighed, walking past the white curtain.

Link sat upon the bed, head bowed and a blank expression on his face. His arms held him aloft by the elbows, sunk into his legs. The princess took a seat across the room, looking at him. "Link..." she called softly. The hero didn't move a single muscle in response, just keeping his eyes focused on the dirt floor. She continued anyway. "I know how you must feel right now…" At this though, The Hero of Twilight burst into mad laughter. Zelda scrutinizingly narrowed her eyes at him. "What's so funny?"

When Link had sufficiently calmed his laughter, he retaliated, "How can you even _begin_ to fathom what I'm going through right now? How can you even _say_ you know the pain and agony I feel?" Zelda opened her eyes wide; no one in her life had ever treated her with anything less than the utmost respect. Except Link. But this was a new level for even him. "Do you know the scars of love, haunted by the phantom that not only I revived, but let escape as well?!"

The princess opened her mouth slowly, the realization dawning on her. "You don't mean…"

"Yes, I do." Link, exhausted, fell back into his old spot, staring at his trembling hands. "I… I love her. No matter how far away she may be, I'll still love her. The dreams and nightmares of her dieing by that fiend's hand haunt me every time I close my eyes. I will not let him harm her, so long as I breathe." His hands closed into fists, rage and adrenaline spiking his system.

Zelda raised her eyes, understanding at last the hero's anxiety. "The choice is obvious where we must go from here then I think." She stood, Link doing so as well as new life swelled within him. His suffering was at least understandable to another now, and the fact the burden kept locked in his heart was finally free let some part of him to breathe easier. The hero nodded at her once as she kept speaking. "The Master Sword sealed away Ganondorf's chosen power and slew him once, and in the coming battle we shall surely need to call upon its strength again. Rest tonight Link, tomorrow we leave first thing for the Sacred Grove."


	4. Lies of the Heart

Faron woods were beautiful this time of year. Fall's coming gave the land a golden aura; red, yellow, and orange drifted to the ground in great piles of multiple colors. Zelda soaked up the radiance, listening to the dry leaves crackle under the steady beat of hooves coming from beneath her white horse, Silvermane. The princess closed her eyes, just soaking in the serene beauty of nature.

Link, however, enjoyed no such pleasures. With every crackle of leaf and splinter of twig, he turned expecting to see the fiery-haired demon coming at him with corrupted blade held high to strike. His sword hand twitched nervously holding Epona's reins, and more than once the horse misinterpreted a command given by her master. The hero finally decided to break the silence with a question nagging at the back of his mind, if only to have something to distract himself from the darker thoughts clouding him.

"When the bulblins raided Castle Town, they attacked Ganondorf as well. Why? Wasn't the point to rescue him?"

Ahead of him, Zelda shrugged. "King Bulblin does strange things. The bulblins serve the strongest side, according to what their king said to you. Perhaps they treat Ganondorf as any other enemy if he appeared weak."

Link pictured the moment again in his mind. Ganondorf had been holding his gut, and he had lost to the hero in their last epic battle. Perhaps it wasn't that farfetched for his enemies to be fighting amongst one another.

Night approached as they reached the three-way fork that led to the deeper woods and Ordon village, so the pair stopped to make camp. Zelda went out to gather some berries and for a small nature walk, while Link remained behind to set the camp up. _It's so much easier to go back to Ordon and spend the night in a warm hut,_ he thought, scavenging for dry sticks to burn. But the hero couldn't, going back to it only would serve to upset those he'd left behind. No, it was more that; the village was a prison of mind. It represented the end of his journey, a place to dwell the rest of his life in retirement from adventuring. A place he'd sought throughout his adventure to return to with Ilia, perhaps to settle down and start a family. The thoughts only would cause excruciating pain of heart, a nightmare where the lie of love to others would only bring endless heartache as he forever dwelled upon never seeing those golden eyes again. And Ilia… he would never have the courage to tell her, not even with its symbol branded upon his left hand. Link knew she had liked him, maybe even loved him. It was obvious as he looked back on the signs. The promise she made him make before he left, the lucky charm that she had made to keep him safe... Telling her that he'd fallen in love with someone else would shatter the girl's heart. To love someone you cannot get to is terrible enough… but to love someone you can see right in front of you but never get to return those feelings was true agony. In the end, the hero would be devoured alive from the guilt of untrue love. Then there was also the new worry over Midna's safety thanks to his hands in Ganondorf's resurrection.

Perhaps it was some cruel, divine jest among the gods, then, that at the very time of Link's temporary return a young girl should decide to take a walk out in the forest. A short white dress covered most of her form, dusty and of linen unlike Zelda's fine silk. A short crop of blond hair drifted freely in the wind, eyes the color of greenest grass gazing into the heavens. When they fell upon the camp and green clad man gathering wood, her entire form came to a sudden stop, heart doing likewise as for a moment, as she wondered if this was real or a dream. When her senses came down from the sky and the girl had convinced herself this was no dream, she began to slowly walk forward. The walk became a jog, and soon a full out sprint. Tears of joy welled up in her eyes.

"LINK!!"

The Hero of Twilight's head snapped up from bending over his makeshift fire. The voice he had most dreaded to hear had just resounded in his ears. It was cruel, and the sound of it tore at him like an old, freshly opened wound to bleed. Yet, ironically, it was soft and gentle. There was little time for contemplation though, as suddenly he was tackled to the ground by a sobbing Ilia. "Link I knew you'd come back!"

The hero was tempted to shove her away and just run. She'd never be able to keep up with his stride, but that would be just cruel to her and so undeserved after all she'd done for him. Instead, he forced his arms to return the hug. Ilia stopped sobbing into his tunic, instead looking back up into his eyes. "I saw you leave that second time, but I always knew you'd come back. You always kept your promises."

The mayor's daughter finally got up, pulling Link to his feet with her. She giggled as he dusted himself off slowly, the sound causing a pang in the twilight hero's heart. Guilt was already freely nibbling at his insides. "I'm glad you came back today, it's the perfect time of year!" When Link looked at her puzzled expression, she frowned. "Don't you remember what today is? It's the harvest festival!" Link frowned, remembering all too well the celebration the village held once a year to revere the goddesses for the annual harvest of food.

Zelda and her mare chose that time to return to camp, the princess carrying a small bundle of berries. Ilia heard the sound and gasped as the heroin came into bowing at her presence. "Forgive me princess… I… I didn't know…" Zelda held up a gloved hand to stop her from speaking. "Do not worry, Link and I are not together. He has his mind on another girl I think." At this simple, yet grave misinterpretation, Ilia's eyes lit up and beamed at the hero. "You do Link?" She blushed a little.

_Oh GREAT,_ he thought.

Link shot the princess a look that screamed sarcastic thanks as Ilia grasped his hand, pulling him back toward Ordon. "Come on Link! The festival's just starting!"

Zelda, still oblivious to Ilia's affections and the hero's deep guilt, nodded with approval as the girl dragged him back to his prison. "Enjoy the evening off Link!"

-----

Two hours later, Link stared into the bottom of a beer mug at the festival table. Everyone had welcomed their hero back with open arms and smiling faces, all with the exception of his own. The misery of a terrible heartache, the guilt of leading a lie to a girl who deserved so much more, and the fear of Midna's safety by the demon he had released all leeched on his form and weighed him down with agony. The ale had been a blessing from the goddesses, giving him a mild sense of ignorance for the mere cost of full thought.

A presence woke him from his apathetic stupor, and he glanced up to see Ilia smiling at him. She wore a new dress of forest green that matched perfectly with her eyes. "Do you like it?" she said, "It was a gift from my father, he said it belonged my mother."

The Hero of Twilight gave an acknowledging nod before resuming his staring contest with the mug. Ilia's smile dropped as her well-known temper leaked out. "Link! You've been sitting here drinking almost since I brought you here! At least SAY something!"

"He's probably so awestruck by your beauty he's been left speechless."

Link summoned the energy to move a bleary eye and glance at Mayor Bo as the large man came to stand by his daughter. She punched him playfully in the shoulder, "Daaad!" Bo let out a hearty chuckle, "Sorry, Sorry! Can't help myself sometimes." The mayor nudged Link, who fell off his stool from the loss of balance. Ilia giggled as her father helped him back up. Bo's voice was a whisper as he spoke in the hero's ear. "I think you should ask my daughter to dance." Suddenly very sober, Link's pupils dilated and he gulped. "I don't dance very wel-"

Using more strength than the twilight hero remembered the old man capable of, the mayor spun the young man forward in a spiral to stop before Ilia. She laughed this time, "What's the matter Link, don't you know how to dance?!" She grabbed his hands with hers, and took him out on the soft earth. Link's misery was filling the formerly tranquil void he had held onto, and guilt was eating away at him inside. Though the mind was purged by dark thoughts, the hero's body was still clumsy from the alcohol lingering in his veins. His movements were clumsy and staggered compared to Ilia's graceful ones. The villagers couldn't help but laugh at the drunken man. Though it was in good humor, Link felt humiliated. Some of the adults joined in on the dance, and a few of the younger ones started playing musical instruments.

The mayor's daughter spun the hero about a little more before she stopped him a handful of inches from her face. _Too close, she's far too close._ A smile played over her face as she leaned in closer toward his lips, her intentions very obvious.

"STOP!!"

Ilia reeled back, shocked. The music had stopped, and Link found everyone staring at him. Link felt his own shock when he realized the voice was his own. His head fell to the floor in disgrace, dirty blond-brown locks covering his face mercifully from the shame.

"I'm sorry… but… I can't stay here in this prison anymore… I can't stand living this lie."

And with that said, the Hero of Twilight walked out of the village, out of his former life, and out of hers, never intending to return.


	5. Obstruction

I appologize in advance. This is my shortest chapter yet. I promise the next one will be almost twice as long.

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_I should have made them understand…_

"Link."

_I should have made her understand…_

"Link!"

_I'm such a coward… I couldn't even stay long enough to tell then why-_

"LINK!!"

The Hero of Twilight's head snapped up. Zelda was glaring at him, but this quickly subsided to a look of concern upon seeing his ragged eyes. He hadn't slept at all after coming back from the festival in the middle of the night, and had hardly spoken at all on their way to the grove. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Fine." He mumbled. Link nicked Epona over to the edge over looking the northern quadrant of Faron woods. Glancing down into the ravine, it looked as deep and endless as the other times he had seen it. Only this time, he didn't have his wolf form or Midna to help him across. He almost twitched at the name as the twilight hero spoke it in his mind, but his guilt for once was not upon her but the village that had broken back and raised him from childhood that he had just shunned. Though minute in comparison to ethics, it was also troubled because he no longer had access to Rusl's Golden cuccoo. "I don't know how we can make it to the grove without something to get us across."

Zelda steadied Silvermane up to the edge, looking down into the gorge. After watching it for about ten seconds, she sat up and nodded to Link before raising her left hand into the air.

A flash of golden light exploded from the mark of wisdom. A thin beam shot out from her hand like a long string of linen, and coiled into a circle like a snake. The circle span around, runes materializing on the front and back to make it into a giant, glowing platform. It settled into the air before them, and though Zelda and Link tried they could not coax the horses to board it. After they stepped on by foot, the platform descended and began to rotate toward the other side of the ravine. The hero was still a bit shocked, looking at Zelda. "I saw that same type of magic in the Palace of Twilight." he said, "Where did you learn it?"

"I resided in Midna's heart for a time, and I learned a few things about her people and their technology." The princess eyed the gently pulsating symbol on her hand as the glowing golden platter kept its course. "I had to learn how to convert energy sources to my own, but I see my efforts were not wasted."

Link's eyes opened a little more as a curiosity came over him. "What energy source were the Twili using exactly?"

Zelda closed her eyes at this, a bit of fear showing on her face. "I do not know what they used to power their creations, but…" She bit her lip, trying to draw on a decipherable explanation. "it was something ancient, as well as powerful." She moved her eyes to rest on the hero's. "I do not know where the ancestors of Twili found the power of their oldest magics, or whether the fused shadows were even of their own creation."

The platform settled down before the small outlook in the rocks that led to the grove, and the two stepped off. The disk dissolved into the air just as they disembarked from it, just as the turquoise platforms of twilight did. The princess of Hyrule's eyes watched forward warily, her two bandaged locks blowing in the forest wind. "Whatever the Twili people unlocked, it obviously corrupted them. Such is the effect of great power, as the chosen strength of Din has done to Ganondorf." Zelda began to step forward into the deeper woods as she spoke, Link following behind. "Now, we must be the ones to stop those corrupted by it once again."

The trip through the Lost Forest was uneventful. Link kept expecting the shrill call of the skull kid's trumpet and see the dancing of the eerily animated skeleton puppets flutter about around every corner and in every shadow. There was no such appearance though. Perhaps the child had grown weary of the beatings he had gotten every time he came out to 'play'. Perhaps he had just left. Regardless, he was nowhere to be seen.

As they approached the grove's entry, something began to affect the heroes' senses. They only needed to look at one another to confirm the feeling was mutual. The closer they drew to the grove, the thicker the air seemed to become. Indeed, the light ebbed and violet fog appeared to have covered the grove as they approached the arch that marked the entry. Just as they came to the gateway, the guardian statues on either side of the entrance thrummed to life with energy. Blue runes across their bodies pulsed, and their eyes opened into spheres of light. Link held the Ordon sword ever so slightly, he wasn't taking any chances in this fog.

"_Hero of twilight, beware._" They spoke, voices booming. "_The grove has been blocked by ancient magic long thought dead. Something has stirred within the Temple of Twilight._"

Link's eyes lit up at the last words. "Temple of Twilight? Does that have something to do with the Twilight Realm?"

"_The Temple of Twilight was built before the Twili were banished. It served as a stronghold and base of operations when they attempted to take over the realm of light with their magic. Now, it is nothing more than a derelict of ancient times._" If the statues could frown, these two probably would be. "_Or so it was thought._"

There was a great grinding of stone on stone from behind the hero and princess. The two turned around to see a stone wall slide away on the western side of the ruins. Behind was a twisting path that lead deeper into the forest.

"_Go now heroes. Find this disturbance's source and remove it. Then you will be able to claim the Sword of Evil's Bane._"


	6. Temple of Twilight

They stood facing a massive structure, both ancient and intimidating. The Temple of Twilight was in the shape of a giant dome, cut about two thirds of the way up to form a flat, plateau-like roofing. The building was cut of a smooth black stone, and seemed to suck up the very light around it. Trapezoids had been cut close to one another to form a mesh that seconded as windows on the eastern side, letting light into the Temple.

Link and Zelda stepped gingerly though awed. A thin snake of violet smoke drifted from the center of the roof, trailing up and curving back into the forest behind them. This was no doubt the source of the barrier that blocked their path to the Master Sword. The hero of the goddesses reached a hand up to touch the smooth black side, and recoiled.

"It's hot… almost like the walls are heated by the magic inside." He said. Zelda nodded.

"The sun probably has more to do with that than magic. But… I cannot help but think there is some truth in what you say."

The princess moved up to the front of the building. Front wasn't too accurate a term, considering there was no dent or mark to indicate an entry point to the relic. The wall was smooth all the way around the entire structure, should they have chosen to look. The princess closed her eyes and hovered the hand marked by wisdom over the dark surface, walking along the wall's length. Occasionally, the princess would stop and change directions. She opened her eyes after a minute or two in this fashion, stopping at a spot that seemed physically no different from any other. Zelda waved her hand over the spot a few moments, and the wall buckled. Squares of the black stone slid forward, outward, left, right, and all a manner of directions as they moved out of the stone face and settled into an arch and stairway that marked the Temple's entrance. The princess turned, motioning Link inside as she herself walked into the dark. The hero followed as always, in a cliché sense.

As their eyes settled to the darker interior, the inside of the entry sanctum appeared just as bleak to the pair as the outside had. Chairs, tables, weapons, armor, scrolls, and other instruments were tossed about as if the Twili had fled yesterday. The two walked carefully, Link unsheathing his blade from its scabbard. Each shadow jumped and flickered in the dim light, and menaced to jump from the ground and attack them. The hallway had been an immediate right as they came in, and now was ever so gradually curving to the left as the two heroes went deeper within. They were making a full ring just within the outermost wall, a journey that seemed to last for hours as they inched along.

Finally, they came to the hallway's end (no doubt the other side of the left wall they had seem first coming in). On their left, two large swinging doors arched menacingly to the ceiling. The wood was polished and the same jet black shade of the stone, if not darker. One could only wonder why the Twili people were so obsessed with the color. As Link and Zelda approached the door, they jumped back as a transparent figure manifested into being right before the gate.

"Only the proven shall pass into the inner sanctum." The figure was clad head to toe in a black robe, revealing not a single feature. Its voice was deep and resonating. "I am the guardian of this temple, and I deny you passage."

Link spun the Ordon Sword once in his hand before taking up an attack position. However, before he could lunge Zelda held up a hand for him to halt. "What do you mean by proven?" she asked.

"Those who pass the test of the Twili may be graced with seeing the Temple's inner workings." The figure's hood didn't even move as it spoke. "Pass our test and I shall let you pass."

"We accept this test."

Link spoke this time, but Zelda turned to stare at him. "We should at least find out how dangerous this is before we walk straight into death's slaughter!" Her words, however, were drowned out as the colors about the hall (Though black was the only real shade) swam about and changed.

The twilight hero seconds later no longer found himself in a hall but what appeared to be a giant, amber puddle. In front of him stretched a gauntlet of assorted puzzles. The strangest of all, though, was that instead of a reflection in the orange liquid he saw Zelda standing up from the other side.

"Link?"

The hero jumped a little as he noticed she moved devoid of him, animate and voiced. It WAS the princess. She glanced nervously ahead, then nodded to him. They moved forward on two different planes, coming to the first obstacle.

It was actually rather simple. Link walked past a switch as if it were nothing, but looking down revealed Zelda's path already blocked by a large gate. She chewed on her lip as the princess tried to think of a way around, but was surprised when it opened all its own. Above, the twilight hero moved from the activated switch to a gaping chasm. Zelda and Link still appeared to each other in the void though. The hero kept his weight on one foot while testing if the black gap was tangible. It wasn't.

Zelda's booted foot came from the underside of the ledge to meet Link's as he tested the gravity. As the chosen hero equalized the weight, he noticed the opposite pulls of gravity were negated when they became balanced. The princess noticed it as well and nodded to her inaccurate reflection as if to say "Work Together". They both pulled out their remaining foot and matched them together. The two heroes were fully free of stable land now, and the only thing keeping them afloat was each other. Thus began the slow crawl forward, matching each step carefully and keeping their weight near perfectly balanced. There were a few scary moments where one of them flailed their arms about as they nearly fell backward, forward, etc, into oblivion but after much dilemma and stress they came close enough to simultaneously leap onto the opposing edge.

As Link stood, the final challenge revealed itself. Beneath him, the only thing separating Zelda from the glowing yellow crystal that most likely was the goal was another wall. Unfortunately for him, the hero realized upon looking up, is that the switch was this time separated from him via a gauntlet of death composed of multiple swinging pendulums all right behind one another.

As Link stood there, he contemplated this latest test. The only real tool he possessed that could even remotely help was the clawshot, and the distance was too great to travel on it. Surely the chains that the blades swung from or the sharpened edges themselves would break his own clawshot's chain before he made it across. Then, he began to take into account that the blades were not completely swinging at random, but appeared to have a pattern to them. The first three were slow. They would swing together once, followed by a swing from the first and third blade. That was followed by the second blade, two triple swings and then the cycle would repeat. The fourth and fifth pendulums swung faster than the former three. They swung twice, followed by a single swing from the former, a swing from the latter, a swing from the former, and then repetition. The second set of five was identical to the first. A single eleventh blade swung constantly at the end, only pausing once every ten swings. It was the fastest of the many pendulums.

The Hero of Twilight carefully waited for the eleventh blade to match into the proper rhythm with its ten brothers before rolling the first blade to the second position. He moved one up with every swing three times, and paused for a swing at the end. He then went through the same routine for the next five giant cleavers. At the tenth blade, he leapt forward to safety, just barely missing the final blade from a miscount on the length of its pause. A lock of hair left where he had been milliseconds ago reminded Link of it. With nothing else left to do, he walked the final couple of feet and pulled the ridiculously large switch.

Below him, Zelda gracefully passed the still opening gate and strolled up to the shimmering crystal, reaching out a gloved hand to touch it. The moment her fingers met, the glimmering shard literally sucked the entire mirrored world into itself as a giant funnel of colors, leaving Link standing next to the princess right where he had been upon entering the strange test realm. The cloaked guardian said nothing, merely dissipating into a black fog as the giant wooden doors behind it creaked open. The two heroes walked forward without hesitation.

The inner sanctum of the Temple was much more illuminated than the former section. The source of the light came from the many pulsing veins of white that crisscrossed and zigzagged in grooves upon the floor and walls. In front of the pair appeared the source of the obstruction blocking the path to the master sword; a giant cylindrical cone shaved off at the top. All the pulsating lines of the temple led off in their own sections and directions, but they all had a source tied to the cone. A small pyramid filed with thin grooves and about the size of a shoe was resided in the carved top, set in the heart of a violet flame that released the same color of smoke into the sky through a hole in the ceiling. It was the same smoke Link and Zelda had seen entering the Twili's former stronghold.

The hero in green stepped forward first, coming up just to the front of the giant shaft. It was cut just at about the waist, the stone pyramid at the nucleus of the blazing flame. Acting on impulse, Link swiftly shoved both his hands into the flame and tugged at the stone. The fire surprisingly did not burn, and actually felt cold to the touch. While resisting at first, the stone quickly gave in to the Hero of Twilight's resolve and came free with a resounding _thunk_ as if pulled from a vacuum. The underside was revealed to be full of intricate lines and runes as well, and was a reflected pyramid of the top. Fully revealed, the stone appeared to be an eight-sided diamond shape that much resembled a child's puzzle.

There was a buzz of change as soon as the stone was stolen from its resting place. The veins across the room faded and died, robbed of their power source. The flame also waned and drifted, before finally extinguishing itself. The last traces of smoke left through the ceiling, leaving the two with a sudden feeling of a deadness surrounding them. With nothing left here, Link and Zelda turned to leave for the Sacred Grove.

In the fading light, neither saw the runes of prophecy carved by the ancient enslaved Twili on the back wall as they left. Their premonition would fade into dust with the rest of the ancient temple, known only to the dead who wrote it and the gerudo who had come a day earlier to cast the spell that had reawakened the formerly inert temple.

_Though the sands of time may turn round and round,_

_I shall wait through dust and age for the key._

_If you wish to see the god long dead reborn,_

_Then the blood of the divine you must feed me._


	7. Path of Blood

Sorry folks. When I started posting this, I was already a few chapters done. However, now that I'm caught up posting should be slow. I won't realease these chapter 'till I'm happy with them. I ask for patience, and that nobody hunt me down and put a gun to my head until I'm completely finished with the story. So... yeah. Here's number 7.

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The thick violet fog did not greet Link as he approached the grove for the second time that day. The soft rays of the sun splashed down upon him and Zelda instead. Small animals emerged from their homes to join in the comforts of the warmth from light.

The Hero of Twilight and his companion approached the sacred gate again. The guardians remained inert as the two passed; for nothing more needed to be said between them. No strange force pushed them away from the holy blade this time, and they proceeded into the grove itself without incident.

There it stood, sparkling in its supreme majesty. The Master Sword glistened with fresh morning dew, and the very air about it seemed to sparkle like the thousands of stars in the night sky. Link paused as he reached the blade, exhaling deeply and mentally calming himself. The hero placed both hands on the hilt, the familiar feeling of warmth and power flooding his fingers and flooding down to his toes. He pulled once and the sword came free of the stone without the slightest struggle. Link held it high up to light, letting it run freely down the sword. For a moment, however, it felt as if a cold stare was coming back from the blade; a blood-red eye leering at him from behind golden chains.

_Thwip._

_Thwip?_ Link asked himself. _What makes the sound "Thwip"? _The answer came too late, however. In his mind, he saw himself countless time pulling back his bow to shoot a monster. The same sound he had just heard was mirrored in the release of the arrow, as the bow string came back to its resting place. Too late came the instinct to dodge, roll, run, dash, flip, and all other evasive maneuvers he knew. Too late he realized he was about to be hit with the same unhonorable attack the Hero of Twilight had used on so many others.

Pain. It came as a burning lance that shot through Link's back and breached the front of his chest, embedding itself there. The Master Sword fell from the moments before triumphant hand and fell to the soft grass. The hero fell to his knees, Zelda screaming his name as she ran into a freshly erected twilight barrier. Looking down, he beheld a black and twisted arrowhead sticking out from his chest, warm blood spurting out along its shaft and down the front of the hero's tunic. His own heart betrayed him with every beat, as the blood began to pool at his knees and spilled across the dirt and earth.

Looking up with great effort, Link saw a demonically gleeful form drop from his former hiding place among the treetops. Familiar dread washed over him as he recognized the sickly green skin and blackened armor. With twisted bow in hand, the dark lord walked victoriously up to the Hero. Eyes already glazing, the hero looked up into that wicked smile that spoke of terrible lust for always greater power.

Ganondorf laughed. No, that was not the right word. He cackled manically with evil delight and kicked the hero onto his front with a boot the color of darkness. Link span like a rag doll in the air, his face coming right down into a pool of his own blood. The stone he had been carrying from the Temple of Twilight flew out from where he had carried it and splashed into the pool of blood. The hero screamed with new agony as the swordsman ripped his arrow from where it had stuck in the hero's back. With what little strength he had left, Link managed to flip over to behold more terrible sights.

Ganondorf took the arrow in one hand and used the sharpened point to cut his left palm. The black blood dripped off his hand and mingled with the pool of Link's owned. The stone that had seemed inert suddenly flared to life with dark fire. The spilt blood swirled and was drawn to the artifact as if it had a life of its own. The blood pooled around its master as the stone levitated into the air, twisting into fountains as they were drawn into the grooves that matched for runes. Once every line and curve was filled with life fluid, the Twili relic literally came apart. It _was _a puzzle. Each triangular side separated into a lopsided triangle, revealing a massive ruby underneath. The stone pieces moved about in an orbiting fashion, the whole crystal as if a sentient entity. Ganondorf, pleased, approached the demonic artifact, his boots splashing the blood that belonged both to him and his injured nemesis.

"Mighty Blood Crystal, hear my voice!" The dark lord's words reverberated in the air around the grove, which was now tainted by the energies of the unholy relic. He dropped the black arrow to raise his hands, smeared with his own black blood, before the shifting puzzle. "I have fed you the blood of the divine, and by my own blood you are bound to me! Show me the path to your master!"

Resounding to the command, tendrils of red lightning shot off from the crystal and spun about the Master Sword from where it lay. The blade was pulled from where it rested, dripping life fluid, and was drawn forcefully before the Crystal. Crimson light shot from the Ruby center, outlining and feeling over the blade. In its own self-defense, the holy sword cocooned itself in light, blocking out the dark crystal's sensors. Assault was not its intent however, and after feeling the sword for several seconds, it cast the thing away like a used bottle and flared again. Holographic images flashed in crimson light before Ganondorf: A shadowy palace, a stone throne, forgotten passages, and a great platform. The last was the most ominous however, and even the fading Link's eyes opened wide as he recognized the black blade pierced in the slab at the center. The twisted sword radiated pure darkness, and though Link only saw it for a moment with the other images, he knew it was the same as the one from his nightmares a week previous.

The Blood Crystal, as Ganondorf had called it, closed back into itself and floated to its new master, who promptly grabbed it and put into a satchel at his side. The Dark Lord turned then, drawing the tainted Sword of the Sages from its scabbard and advanced to finish his wounded prey. The hero closed his eyes, ready for the end, when he heard another _thwip_ followed by a yell of pain. The hero, still fading, struggled to open his eyes again to see Ganondorf backing away from him, a golden arrow lodged in his shoulder. Across the grove, Zelda notched another light arrow in her glowing bow, the shattered remnants of the twilight barrier crunching under her soft boots. Her triforce piece was glowing intensely, and no magic could hold back a chosen one in their full glory. The dark lord was reminded of his lack of his own triforce essence as more of his blood gushed from the new wound.

Ganondorf growled menacingly before heading back into the Grove's forest and was lost among the trees. The Hero of Twilight appeared as good as dead anyway, and the demon thief would deal with the princess soon enough. Zelda hurried over to Link, who was barely conscious now. He let a grin play over his features, even on Death's doorstep.

"Nice shot." he said. The hero's eyes rolled back into his head, and with a shutter he went limp.

"LINK!!!"


	8. Life, Death, and Love

"Well maybe he just didn't want to herd goats anymore."

Bo frowned and shook his head. "I don't think it as simple as that Fado. Link's not the kind of guy to get upset about work." He turned around to face the group. "I don't see him to overly cling to fame either. He's always been a bit of a recluse. Who else would build their home so high above ground?"

Nobody could seem to decipher what their hero had said upon his departure. He was weighed down by something for sure, but what that was remained a mystery despite their best efforts. Most of the town had gone to bed since it was nearly midnight and a storm had set in within the last few hours, opening the heavens to a torrent of the goddesses' tears. Only Bo, Rusl, Ilia, and Fado remained awake at the mayor's house.

Rusl sat in the corner staring out the window. He silently contemplated and processed Link's words over and over, but he still was no closer than anyone else to what their hero had meant. Fado sat on the wrestling ring's edge, facing Bo who had his back to the wall. Ilia sat furthest of anyone, head on her arms while curled up in a fetal position against the wall. Her pine-colored eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"I think we need to look a little closer at the meaning in his words to understand him." Rusl turned his heads from the pouring rain to look solemnly back at the group. "Link said he 'couldn't live a lie' anymore. What kind of lie was he talking about?"

"Perhaps he felt guilty, like he wasn't a real hero inside." Bo offered. "Like I said, Link's a recluse. He may have felt unworthy of fame and fortune."

"But that wouldn't explain why he left." Rusl returned. "He would have wanted to stay and try to pick up the pieces of his former, humble life as a ranch hand."

"Maybe he liked someone else."

Three faces turned to look at Ilia, balled up in the corner. Her voice was soft, yet cracked as if made of glass. "I could have understood that… But I wish he at least had had the courage to at least say he didn't-"

Her voice faulted at the last word, and she resumed softly sobbing between her arms. The mayor came over to his daughter, lifted her head up by the chin, and dabbed away the tears. "It's fine Ilia, it'll be alright."

As the girl hugged her father, Bo's mind drifted back to the former night. He had pushed Link into a dance he clearly wanted in no part of. But would what appeared so simple a thing be enough to drive the swordsman to his breaking point?

The mayor's thoughts were interrupted by a short scream outside. Rusl was out the door before anyone could even blink, recognizing the shriek's owner as his wife Uli. Bo and Fado registered to it soon enough and followed suit.

The rain came down in buckets outside, but the newly awakened village could see the occurrence outside with horror as much as if it had been glaring bright. Zelda, her dress drenched in blood and water, held in her arms the limp form of the town's hero. His green tunic was literally crimson from his own life fluid. Uli walked beside the princess, a hand between Link's pulse, forehead, and other vitals. Rusl walked on the other side, only able to watch nervously.

Bo and Fado walked up in shock. The former recovered first before looking to Uli for help. She nodded to him once. "He's alive, but barely. There's so much lost blood, he's starting to go cold. He'll catch hypothermia out here for sure if we don't get him inside, and he'll die from blood loss in there if we can't stop the bleeding."

Uli was the closest thing the village had to a medic, so everyone else followed her lead without question. She had birthed both of her children solo, her husband uselessly standing there. "Fado, go get bandages that you use to take care of the goats. Bo, clear out a bed and get fresh blankets. Rusl, take him from Zelda. The princess must be exhausted. Go to Bo's house and-"

"LINK!!"

Ilia sprinted down from her house with her hands cupped over her mouth in horror. She stopped infront of him, putting her hands around his bloodied left gauntlet and looked up to Uli with wide eyes. "H-he's not d-d-"

"Dead?" Uli asked. Ilia nodded once. "No, but I can't promise he won't be unless everyone helps out here."

Bo nodded to Rusl's wife. "Ilia, honey, go get some warm water and towels. We're probably going need them." His daughter squeezed Link's hand once before sprinting back to the house. Bo followed her, while Fado ran off to the ranch. Rusl gently took the hero's bloodied and limp form from Zelda's hands and headed up to the Mayor's house.

Zelda looked ready to fall, and Uli quickly stabilized her with her own hands. The princess nodded in thanks. Rusl's wife chewed her lip once as Zelda started to move for the house. "Princess… I have to know. Who, or _what_, could do this to our Link?"

Zelda stopped, but did not say a thing as she produced a black arrow from the folds of her ruined dress. Not even the cleansing rain could wash the blood that covered the shaft. The princess handed it to Uli, who took it flinchingly. "Someone with a heart as dark as the weapon he used to hurt him."

As they walked up to the house in the downpour, Zelda stopped at the door's entry and looked up into the stormy skies searchingly.

_Goddesses help him._

_-------_

The Hero of Twilight awoke and stood in a haze. The air around him was nothing but fog that seemed to stretch into an endless horizon line all around, and above was a vast, white, empty sky; if you could even call the abyss above a sky.

"Where am I?" he asked aloud. No answer came, but suddenly a familiar face popped into existence before him. One moment there was just fog, then she was suddenly just there. A black and runed cloak trailed off a lithe blue form, and red-gold eyes were set on him.

Link took steps forward, but found himself no closer to her. He moved across the invisible floor beneath him, but never got anywhere. The hero was bound without chains. He couldn't believe it, until the obvious answer came to him. "Am I dreaming?" he asked the Twili. She nodded back to him.

"I am not real, but a manifestation of the power the goddesses graced you to contain. This form is the one you know well, so it is how I chose to appear before you. And I chose appear before you because you are dieing."

The flashes of Ganondorf and all that blood came back to him in an instance, and he remembered going cold as death closed in on him. _Am I dead?_ As a part of him, she shook her head already knowing his question. "You are the Farore's chosen. I am a part of you for a reason, and one day soon you will understand why. The destiny of the three approaches at last Hero of Twilight, and the goddesses' will forbids this cycle to perish before it has been fulfilled."

Link blinked a few times as the phantom Midna floated right before him. _Destiny? Cycle? Farore's Chosen? _So many questions rattled his brain, and he would never have the chance to get the answers from this apparition. A slender hand was placed on his forehead, and he felt his brain go numb and the fog-covered world blacked out around him.

"Awake now O Hero of Twilight. And forget this meeting ever occurred."

-------

The hero struggled meekly with his eyelids, finally forcing them open. The morning light stung his eyes, and the hero had to blink a few times before his eyes adjusted. He was wrapped in several blankets and weakly pushing them back revealed that his chest was completely obscured by white bandage strips. The room was occupied by two others he soon noticed. Ilia lay on a couch with her arms wrapped about a wrung hand towel. Zelda was passed out in a chair next to the bed, her head resting against the chair side.

Link tried to quietly rise as not to wake the girls, but what little blood he had regained failed his vitality's standards and he quickly fell back into the sheets with a weak thud. Ilia bolted upright, instantly awake with her head swiveling around in random direction as the senses and brain tried to keep up with her muscles. Zelda was much more graceful; head gradually rising while her eyelids slowly flicked open.

The formerly quiet room suddenly was bustled with activity as the twilight champion arose from his death-like slumber. Many of Ordon's Villagers flooded into the cramped room, and Link soon found himself claustrophobic. Thankfully, Uli appeared like a proper nurse and ushered the children with nearly everyone else out. Zelda, Ilia, Rusl, Bo, herself and her patient soon were all that remained.

The hero tried to rise from the bed a second time but Uli gently yet forcefully put him back down. "You've lost more than three quarters of the blood in your body, and lucky to be alive Link." She said, like a caring mother. In truth, Uli had been about as close as one came in his orphaned childhood. "That arrow went clean through your stomach, luckily sparing your vitals. Don't push it, keep rested and drink plenty of water if you want to keep fighting."

Link opened to his mouth as if to argue, but the memory of two nights ago flashed before him and he bit back barbed words. Uli, satisfied, nodded to the others as she left. "No pushing or getting him riled up. He's in no condition to even walk, let alone fight."

An uncomfortable silence drifted over the room upon the departure of Rusl's wife. The Hero of Twilight felt the gaze of nearly everyone in the room, despite Uli's warning. They simply couldn't help themselves, and Link quickly cracked like an egg.

"Thank you." He said, sitting up despite Uli's former protests and his weakened body's aches. "I know I left you all on a sour note two nights ago, and there is no excuse to my behavior. You are truly great people to take care of me even after I have offended you all so much."

Bo waved a hand aside, an indication of pardon. "Link, this village will always be your home. We know you've done some courageous things on your journey, and that stress is showing is an acceptable thing." Pause. The hero's heart skipped a beat as he knew exactly what was coming next. "I think I speak for all of us when I say we'd like to help you mentally as much as we have physically." Bo rested a hand on Link's shoulder, and the hero had to resist the urge to shrink from it. "Opening up was one of the hardest things for you as a child, and it remains the same to this day. But please, do it for us, as if nothing else thanks for what we've done."

Link's insides squirmed. Even heavily wounded, he felt the need to full-out flee, and if necessary, even crawl to leave the room. The greatest dread was from the leaf-green eyes watching from the couch. They were the most focused upon him, and the ones he feared to see sad above all others. He sighed deeply, and the triforce upon his hand pulsed to give him the courage he needed for this most anxious of tasks.

"It seems so simple to say, and yet the feelings are so much more complicated than that." From where she sat on the couch on the other side of the room, Ilia rose and approached the rest of the group. "The journey I was on, this quest… I had help along the way. Many helped me in fact, but there was one hand that was always there for me through thick and thin." The mayor's daughter had the widest eyes it seemed now, and she stood ahead of the group at Link's bedside. The hero kept his head and eyes downcast, unable to even acknowledge her. "She was always there for me, and I for her. I didn't realize how serious the bond we had was until we were separated."

With every ounce of willpower and strength he had, Link raised his head and met Ilia's gaze. The words were painful and foul-tasting, as opposed to the beauty he held dear. But they needed to be said, for the good of both of them.

"I love her."

Ilia broke. She fell to her knees and grasped Link's bandaged chest, wrapping her arms around his body and wept as if the world had just ended. The hero grasped her and pulled her against him, unable to comfort the girl the way she so desperately needed and wanted. Eyes red and still streaming tears, she looked up to those crystal, azure pools Ilia loved so much and sniffled a little more. "I'm so sorry Ilia." he said, still holding her close. "You will always be my friend, but I cannot be the one to love you."

She nodded. "I understand Link." That was all. A simple phrase, but it meant she accepted his decision, no matter how much it tore up her own heart. They separated, and Ilia, tears still falling down her cheeks, went to leave the room. She stopped at the doorway, however, to utter one final thing. "I want you to be happy, and if you are, I will try to be too." And with that, she left. It was a perfect, selfless act.

No one said a thing, and one by one all but Link left the room. No words could be uttered, for nothing could accurately describe what had just transpired. It was as straightforward as it seemed: They left.

Link felt relief for the first time in months. Ilia, though sad, had accepted him and would surely recover with time. Perhaps she would even find someone else then. With those thoughts in mind and peace of heart, the Hero of Twilight drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	9. Gate of the Realms

Days moved by slower than a redead knight. Sera broke into her shop's more elite shipments and gathered red and blue potions made of chu jelly, then put them in Link's jars. The hero consumed the foul-tasting substances before the bottles were even full, and finally could stand without aid by the end of the week.

Link pushed his recovery as far as his stamina would let him, and often beyond. Day by day, he would gently test and use his muscles on a handful of exercises such as sit-ups so his body would not weaken from its lean state while ill. Every moment he didn't have the energy to move, he would rest. The nightmares still came, but he grew to suppress them. He was strengthened by the resolution of the recent conflict between his heart and Ilia's, and he would not be a glum hero for the rest of Hyrule after making closing that new bridge between them. Midna would have been disgraced to find him as he was anyway.

Despite that absolution, the looming doom approaching still bothered the Hero of Twilight. Ganondorf was more dangerous than ever, now that he possessed that evil Twili relic from the temple. But whatever fear was felt from that old rock could not compare to the foreboding to come from where the dark lord was going. Link had seen those visions, and he had no doubt they were of the Twilight Realm. His dreams now had tangible fear, as the hero knew that Ganondorf and the Twilight Princess were on a collision course that could very well end with one of their deaths. And if the nightmares were any indication along with the fact he had just nearly died from the attacks of one, then the latter seemed much more likely to fall.

One night, the hero confided his fears to Zelda. She reassured him that the one way between the realms remained the Mirror of Twilight, and Midna had performed its destruction so nothing like this would ever happen. However, they still agreed that Ganondorf would likely seek passage to the Twilight Realm there and that it should be their first stop once the hero was healed.

So he pushed on. As his recuperation sped along, Link moved from walking to running and training. Using a wooden blade provided by Rusl (though Uli was still protesting for him to rest and tried to forbade her husband from it), he would train with techniques learned from the Hero's shade almost every afternoon for sometimes hours at a time. Still, it lacked the weight and feeling of strength the Master Sword held.

On a sunny day, Link returned to the sacred grove and retrieved said blade from where it been cast aside by the Blood Crystal. The grove remained tainted from the foul acts that had occurred on its soil. The grass was dark yellow and dead, the trees blackened and corrupted. No cheerful animal calls greeted Link as he claimed the one pure thing left behind from the grove's desecration, and one question possessed his mind on his return from the dead place in the forest.

_Is this but a taste of what's to come?_

_-------_

At last, the day came when the realm's hero was ready to depart. Everyone gathered at gorge before the bridge to bid Link and Zelda farewell. Some waved, some shook hands. Ilia preferred a hug, and the hero obliged.

"Promise we'll see you again?" He nodded to her just like last time, and they hugged again. Though not lovers, a friendship remained through the storms of both hearts.

The two headed out for the desert. For Link, nothing had changed. For the princess, this was very different than the last trip when Midna was able to simply warp them to the Mirror Chamber. After all, it wasn't everyday she clung for dear life to a cucoo over two hundred feet in the air or flew into the desert sky via giant unstable cannons. And then there was the mad boar ride across the dunes and over the giant pits in the sand, which Zelda held onto the saddle she shared with Link during the whole episode of violent bucking.

Upon nightfall, Link and the battered princess ascended the ancient Arbiter's Grounds. The monsters had long since departed with Zant's death, and the whole journey up was unhindered. Just as the moon reached its full peak in the sky, the two stepped into the soft sand of the basin that was the center of the Mirror Chamber.

The Hero of Twilight gazed around, somberly noting not a grain of sand had seemingly moved from that moment which seemed so painfully long ago, and yet remembered it as if had had occurred just minutes before. The highest place in the land short of the top of perhaps of Death Mountain, the tip of the former prison had a view of all of Hyrule. To the north were the glistening peaks of Snowpeak jutting up like ice-topped teeth among the clouds. To the south were the vast forests of Ordon that covered so many unexplored lands. To the west were the spires of Hyrule Castle within its silver walled majesty, and beyond rose the smoking tip of Death Mountain. The moonlight drifted over everything, bathing the land in a soft blue glow.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Zelda said as she came to stand beside him. "It's sights like these that truly make me appreciate the serenity the goddesses crafted in our world." Link nodded, but his mind was no longer present with its body. The scene was beautiful yes, but it was wasted without the one he could truly appreciate it with.

A fresh tear departed his face, but did not fall to the sand. It drifted there before Link, the light of millions of stars glinting upon its surface. Slowly, it went around them and drifted toward the center of the chamber. The hero and princess turned from the breathtaking landscape to watch the mystical spectacle as the tear took a position above the palm of a glowing white hand.

"O heroes of the realms, why have you returned?"

The sage of light was the speaker, holding Link's glimmering tear in the air. The other four sages stood beside him, looking to the two with their facemasks. Zelda looked to Link once, who nodded reassuringly before she turned to speak. "Ganondorf has returned."

The sages all began to converse at once at this amongst each other with shock and fear evident in their ghostly voices. The sage of shadow finally answered them. "The demon thief is dead. We saw the Hero chosen by the Gods pierces him with the sword of evil's bane, and we watched his chosen power fade from him all from atop this summit. How can you say he yet lives?"

Link spoke this time. "Somehow, our own chosen powers were used to reincarnate him. He has stolen a Twili artifact and even now seeks passage into the Twilight Realm. We must reach it first."

The sage looked ready to retaliate, but the one of light resumed his role a speaker. "There is only one gate of the realms, and the Twilight Princess has destroyed it. The Dark Lord will never have access to the Twilight Realm again, just as Midna wished."

The hero sighed frustratedly. They were wasting time, and if his dreams meant anything then there still had to be some way to the other realm. Maybe if he pulled the right strings… "What do you know of something called the Blood Crystal?"

The sage was taken aback at this, and looked to his peers. If Ganondorf had been frightening, the look they now possessed was something of sheer terror. Even Light could not keep from stuttering as he asked "W-Where did you hear that name?!"

Link smiled at face but frowned in heart. They were getting somewhere now, but the sages fear meant the relic posed more of a problem than he previously thought. "It is the artifact that Ganondorf stole from the Temple of Twilight. He used it to nearly kill me, and seeks…" He thought back for a moment, trying to recall those few moments before his near-death experience. "its 'Master'. If you know anything about this, it will benefit all for you to tell us."

The sage of light still held the hero's tear in his hand, and with a sigh let it go. It began to drift slowly to altar where the Mirror of Twilight once stood. "We must be sure that certain events have come to pass before we speak of what our many predecessors have so long kept secret."

Now above the altar, the tear began to shine with a light all its own. The glow covered the sandy ground around them, the small dunes beginning to shift and swirl. "I fear that we have not been entirely truthful with you. The Mirror of Twilight is indeed the only gateway between the worlds, but it is not fully closed. Midna could not truly destroy it no more than Zant."

From beneath the shifting sands, glowing fragments cast in the tear's light arose. Shattered glass came together in a glowing, disk-like pattern in the air. Each fragment slid into place in the large three-dimensional puzzle until the disk was filled with glimmering cracked glass. In a flashy finale, the shining tear floated to the mirror and was absorbed by it. The same pool of light that had cracked the glass reappeared, this time restoring what it had once destroyed. As the radiance filled each crack, the lines faded from the shimmering surface as ripples in a pool until the exterior became as flawless as it once was. The Restored Mirror floated for a few moments more before settling back down into its cradle on the altar. The glowing symbols etched on the glass surface soon pulsed alive, and flew upon the jagged onyx pillar opposing it, a glowing tunnel coming to life upon it.

Link stared dumbfounded at the revived portal. "How…?" he could only mutter after standing there trying to process what had just occurred.

The sage of light's mask frowned, and he shook his head sadly. "She no doubt told you the legend of the mirror. Only the true leader of the Twili can destroy the it; and despite what she may have thought Midna's bloodline had no more claim to that title than the usurper Zant."

Questions to that statement were drowned out by rage. All this time… All that mooning, all that pain, every second could have been avoided. He could have returned the moment she left, but the damnable sages had kept quiet with these 'secrets'. And for what? Because they feared someone would reenter a world the hero had no doubt he had found his own way into?

Anger flooded into the hero's mind, something that rarely occurred in him. "You could have let me in! You knew this whole time there was still a path, and yet you said nothing!"

The sage of fire, quickest to rage among his peers, spoke in turn now. "We could not risk it! Ganondorf, even before he was revived, could have used the renewed link to do terrible things!"

"And so I shall." Came a cold voice from behind the group.

Link twirled around with the Master Sword drawn as red light poured over the chamber. From the center, the Blood Crystal hovered just a foot above Ganondorf. Crimson lightning shot off like limbs to keep the abominable ruby afloat, arcing sometimes through the Demon thief's body as a conduit to take and give energy to. The power of the formerly dormant object had grown tremendously, the many thunders about it hissing and cracking through the air as if searching for prey. Ganondorf's chuckle was like frozen ice as he continued to speak. "You must get tired from always making things so easy for me. Creating the barrier and paving the way to the Crystal was hardly a challenge. But this time I didn't even have to do any of the work. I must really thank you for all your efforts."

The crystal and the Dark Lord began to dissolve into the all too familiar black particles as he let out another sinister laugh. Link tried a jump attack, but only cut air as his tormentor melted away before him into a black mass. The hero chased the formless matter even as it fled into the portal. He leapt onto the stone altar and up shimmering white stairs 2 at a time as they barely managed to materialize in time for him to step upon. At the summoned lip of the platform, Link did not even wait to be pulled in but rather jumped forward into the stream of light that shone from the mirror. His form turned the color of shadows and split apart rapidly as he was thrust into the black hole. The hero thought he heard the sages and Zelda yelling after him, but he would not wait.

Link would _not_ let his nightmares become a reality.


End file.
